Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link Between Public Capital and Productivity
研究基础设施（尤其是公路）与生产率之间的因果关系，发现公路建设对车辆密集型行业的生产率提升更显著，但边际投资效益不高，解释了1950-1960年代生产率的一次性提升及随后的放缓。
Does the positive correlation between infrastructure and productivity reflect causation? If so, in which direction? I find that when growth in roads (the largest component of infrastructure) changes, productivity growth changes disproportionately in U.S. industries with more vehicles. That vehicle-intensive industries benefit more from road-building suggests that roads are productive. At the margin, however, road investments do not appear unusually productive. Intuitively, the interstate system was highly productive, but a second one would not be. Road-building thus explains much of the productivity slowdown through a one-time, unrepeatable productivity boost in the 1950's and 1960's.